ginnirae's posterous

18 May 2012

wax and dyeing

I shall admit that one of my favorite surface design methods is using wax, dyes and screen printing. I love combining dyes, paints, wax in many layers. I also like the idea of whole art cloth and not necessarily piecing things together. Here is a piece I recently did while experiencing the day with my 2 year textile art program students. We had a class with Els van Baarle (who makes the most amazing art cloth). I took the opportunity to dye some of my own cloth and was most happy with how this one turned out. Now what? I'd rather not add stitch or add anything to it. I like it as it is. What would you do? if anything?

22 Apr 2012

Lente kriebels

I was teaching two mixed media classes about fabric paper. Sometimes the first layers don't look like much so after making two different collages, I worked them into this design. I call it my Lente kriebels - Google translates that as Spring jitters - when the flowers start blooming, the lambs start jumping, the geese are floating around with their babies just above their wings and the sun is just warm enough to entice you to spend more time outdoors. :)

10 Apr 2012

Name tag

I asked all of my students in my two year program at DIY Textile School to make a name tag that they could wear, so each of the new teachers would be easily able to see their names. There were lots of interesting tags made, but unfortunately as time goes by students have not been wearing them. Here is my 3D name tag, created just after I had my hair cut (so of course I used my own hair clippings) and soon after I decided to let nature do her thing and allowed my gray to grow out.

5 Apr 2012

Pillow cover for mom

My mom likes anything Dutch as it reminds her of me. I made her a wall hanging 2 years ago and she decided she preferred to have it as a pillow. So here is the cover and the pillow form awaits its arrival in Florida! The little girls come from a Dutch museum brochure that I transferred onto fabric. The thin strips of cloth come from quilt scraps that a friend of mine shared with me. The cloth surrounding the center piece comes from more scraps from a friend's stash. The background was an old sheet. I love recycling.

5 Apr 2012

Zwart/wit

Time to add some more pieces I've completed. This was made while in Amerongen - from flax, feathers, silk and paper. I'll have to make a detail photo since it is hard to see in this picture and it looks a bit blurry too. Darn.

3 Mar 2012

3D fiber arts

I just got back from a 3-day retreat. It is really great to get away from it all and just create for 3 solid days. Nynke van Amersfoort gave a personalized workshop to Steekplus group members teaching us new techniques using all natural fibers to create 3-dimensional or flat fiber artworks. Everyone created some fascinating pieces, received personal guidance and instruction to inspire and grow beyond our present comfort zone. The first picture is of Nynke as she was teaching. The other two photos are works in process by two participants. My projects are also still in process and I don't have photos yet. I dropped them off at my atelier to complete on Monday. I also enjoyed being in the Utrechtse Heuvelrug where I hiked in the woods every day before our classes. The whole experience was exactly what I needed to rest, inspire and regroup.

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15 Jan 2012

Tussen de Bogen 36 Amsterdam

I rented a new space in November for DIY Textile School then renovated, painted, moved and within a week we had our first club night! After all that I needed a vacation and went off to see Mom in Florida over the Christmas holiday. Now that I am back here is a peek at the new location before and after renovations. Thanks to Scott, Anke, Jessey, Dymphie, Paul, Hannie, Annemieke and many others (and their names are not in any particular order of effort!) who helped to make this happen!

We had our first class this past Saturday at the new location! It was a great success! I think we will all be happy here.

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20 Dec 2011

busy-busy-busy

Well, I've been so busy with my school (moving to a new location) that I haven't had a moment to write on my personal blog, only the school blog (also about the school getting certified!!). I took this picture back in September when I was at Biezenmortel for a master class with Jette Clover and Linda Colsch. I made 4 new pieces of art which I am just now sending off to Sappemeer for a joint gallery exhibit with Steekplus. Notice on the Steekplus blog the flyers for the DIY Textile School Open Day in February!

Anyway, here are 2 of the art pieces I am showing. Can you guess the inspiration? Amsterdam canals - day and night. I am working on yet another Amsterdam inspired piece that I started at a workshop with Ineke Berlyn. Picture will be in the next blog posting!

22 Nov 2011

Paper Making with Mieke Veerkamp

A couple of weeks ago I spent a day making handmade paper and folding books in a workshop with Mieke Veerkamp. It was a very interesting day not only because we made a number of folding books but we also had a visit to the paper mill, and we could stock up on lots of different paper (made from jeans, elephant poop, money, etc.) at the mill store. This is the only photo that uploaded and its one of my finished projects after it dried at home.

6 Nov 2011

Too busy....but never too busy to play

I have been so busy with so many things that every time I think about putting something on the blog, it already seems like old news. I am overwhelmed with photos to choose from events to tell about, so I'll just have to begin somewhere.

Let's start with another kinderfeestje! I had another fun Sunday with Antien and 7 young girls all around the age of 7. At a local children's farm (hence the boots and horses), we provided the activity for a birthday party. We made little stuffed dolls/creatures. I had prepared the bodies in advance with little white faces and the girls added their own face with fabric markers, pieces of cloth for enhancing their "clothing", pieces of felt or other wool and sythetic threads for hair and ear fuzz, and a finger knitted tail from fancy yarns. Each girl stuffed her own doll and the adults quickly sewed up the bottoms so all the dolls could join together for a tea party. The little girls were very focused for over an hour to make the cutest creatures ever! What do you think?